Democratic strategist Robert Shrum joined us on the Political Wire podcast for a discussion of how Democrats need to go on the offensive and defend Obamacare ahead of the midterm elections.
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Out next month: A Fighting Chance by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
“An unlikely political star tells the inspiring story of the two-decade journey that taught her how Washington really works–and really doesn’t.”
Minnesota state Rep. Andrea Kieffer (R) said that a package of bills that would provide paid family and sick leave and address the gender pay gap makes women “look like whiners,” the Huffington Post reports.
Said Kieffer: “We heard several bills last week about women’s issues and I kept thinking to myself, these bills are putting us backwards in time. We are losing the respect that we so dearly want in the workplace by bringing up all these special bills for women and almost making us look like whiners.”
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“Men are better negotiators, and I would encourage women, instead of
pursuing the courts for action, to become better negotiators.”
– Texas Republican Party Executive Director Beth
Cubriel, quoted by Huffington Post, explaining the GOP’s position on fair pay legislation.
A new term for the political dictionary: “McConnelling”
Charlie Cook: “The bottom line is that if you have liked the last three years, you’ll love the next three. If you haven’t liked the last three years, you’ll just have to suck it up; it isn’t likely to change anytime soon.”
“I think we’re in for a tsunami election.”
— RNC Chairman Reince Preibus, quoted by TPM.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Colorado finds Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) starts out with a 2 point lead over Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) in the U.S. Senate race, 42% to 40%.
Key findings: “Gardner starts out the race with just under 50% name recognition, and voters with an opinion about him are pretty evenly divided. The close division mirrors how voters feel about Udall’s job performance- 41% approve and 40% disapprove of him, almost identical to where we found him in December.”
Mitt Romney: “Able leaders anticipate events, prepare for them, and act in time to shape them. My career in business and politics has exposed me to scores of people in leadership positions, only a few of whom actually have these qualities. Some simply cannot envision the future and are thus unpleasantly surprised when it arrives. Some simply hope for the best. Others succumb to analysis paralysis, weighing trends and forecasts and choices beyond the time of opportunity.”
“President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton traveled the world in pursuit of their promise to reset relations and to build friendships across the globe. Their failure has been painfully evident: It is hard to name even a single country that has more respect and admiration for America today than when President Obama took office, and now Russia is in Ukraine. Part of their failure, I submit, is due to their failure to act when action was possible, and needed.”
Bill Stepien, who ran both of Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) campaigns and is a central figure in the George Washington Bridge scandal, “quietly accepted a job at a top Republican consulting firm late last month,” Politico reports.
The firm worked on Christie’s re-election campaign in 2013.
“It’s a soft landing for Stepien, who was rising quickly in GOP politics and had drawn comparisons to Karl Rove before becoming embroiled in the Bridgegate scandal.”
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), “the master Democratic fundraiser,” has launched a leadership PAC to support “like-minded” candidates and issues important to him, the Richmond Times Dispatch reports.
A new University of North Florida poll reveals Charlie Crist (D) has a single point lead over Gov. Rick Scott (R) among registered voters, 34% to 33%.
Scott’s approval rate is down slightly at 45%.
Colorado gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo (R) is raffling off an AR-15 rifle with the help of controversial poster boy Ted Nugent, the incendiary rocker who earlier this year called President Obama a “subhuman mongrel,” ABC News reports.
First Read: “The focus of a president’s second term usually turns more to foreign policy, especially once it seems like domestic priorities are totally stalled, you know, like it appears now. But for President Obama and his administration, the events in Ukraine and Russia probably aren’t what they had in mind on the foreign-policy front — especially with key midterm elections slightly more than seven months away. The president would prefer to be picking and choosing the foreign-policy focus he would like to have, say, like his event yesterday with the Palestinian leader on the ever-elusive Mideast peace deal.”
“Bottom line: Obama and his team are handcuffed dealing with this thorny issue when they have plenty of domestic work to do to help their party in November… And as we wrote yesterday, it’s highly unlikely that this foreign-policy standoff gets resolved in a triumphant way that helps Obama politically; this isn’t one of those crises where the public rallies around the commander-in-chief.”
A new Texas Research Institute poll finds Greg Abbott (R) leading Wendy Davis (D) in the race for Texas governor by 7 points, 49% to 42%.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) “is making his fourth trip to Iowa in eight months, logging serious face-time before most other potential 2016 White House hopefuls in the state that kicks off presidential voting,” the AP reports.
“That’s more Iowa trips than any of the other Republicans mentioned as possible presidential contenders, except for fellow tea party-backed U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. But Cruz’s brand of social conservatism may excite much of the party’s base more easily than Paul’s Libertarian ideals.”
Des Moines Register: “He’d never stepped foot in Iowa in his life until he came last summer to get acquainted with Iowa Christian conservative ministers at an event in Des Moines.”
Reuters: “In the Illinois primary elections on Tuesday, candidates on Chicago’s Democratic ballot will include someone who served a prison term for bribery, another who is due to go on trial on bribery charges this spring and a third charged with bank fraud.”
“Political experts say all three candidates are either guaranteed victory or heavily favored to win.”
Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, a wealthy political benefactor who funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to former presidential candidate John Edwards that was used to hide his mistress, died Monday, the AP reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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